Some employees were reportedly “tricked into the factory with inaccurate recruiting advertisements.” Intense production quotas required an amount of labor that was said to be physically impossible to meet even with overtime; work hours ran up to 15 hours per day, and managers often shorted workers on pay for forced overtime hours. Under the May production schedule—which CLW says included orders from Trump’s company—workers reportedly “worked for over 350 hours” with only two holidays off.

If fatigued workers tried to request extra rest time, CLW claims, “the management would decline their request and use large order volumes as an excuse.” Those too exhausted to continue often ended up getting fired just for incurring three unexcused absences, which the management evidently considered “voluntarily terminat[ing] their employment, in which case no pay or compensation would be given.” The payment schedule was also stalled for weeks, so a worker who quit might have to forgo their last month’s wages.

Investigators observed that women workers faced more aggressive wage theft and penalties than male colleagues. Additionally, student apprentices were misclassified as regular workers and pressed into excessive, underpaid shift work. Even by China’s standards, the labor conditions were wildly out of step with the luxurious image of the brands known to contract with Huajian, including Guess and Marc Fisher—high-end labels that claim to follow high corporate-ethics standards—and the signature label of a presidential daughter and global feminist figurehead.

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Investigators reported that “Management frequently verbally abused” workers with degrading epithets, and misogynistic insults against women workers, “and sometimes physically hit workers.” The Independent quoted one worker’s recollection of seeing a manager bludgeon a coworker with a high-heeled shoe, leaving him streaming blood as he retreated to the on-site nurse in plain view of coworkers.

Adding insult to injury, bosses allegedly sometimes forced workers to engage in payroll forgery in order to cover up systematic underpayment of wages. CLW cites video footage showing a factory trainer forcing new hires to sign “dozens of pay stubs with different names.”

CLW’s investigation did not specifically target Trump’s brand; rather, the organization hopes its findings draw the public’s attention toward the systemic issues of structural abuse and exploitation across China’s apparel industry, and the complicity of Western fashion brands.

The dehumanizing treatment and lack of accountability—which researchers observed and documented with interviews and photography—led CLW to deem Huajian one of the worst workplaces they had ever encountered. None of the 20 brands known to have sourced their production at Huajian have directly responded to CLW’s queries, the group says, though some companies have issued tepid statements to the press, promising to investigate the claims.

Anecdotally, CLW says it has heard the factory eased up its work schedules since the scandal broke, and one aggrieved former worker said he was awarded some backpay. But outside inspectors and media apparently remain blocked from further investigating the factory. It is unclear whether the Trump brand’s previous pending orders have been canceled.

“Because Ivanka Trump is the most high-profile brand in the investigation…she is setting a bad example,” says CLW Executive Director Li Qiang, noting that Huajian was “the worst among all the factories that we’ve investigated in the past few years.”

After Hua’s disappearance, several agents entered her house without a warrant, Deng recalled, confiscated her phone and subjected her to hours of intimidating interrogation, refusing to release her until she signed off on a police report. One officer “lectured me on my thinking, asking me not to get in touch with strangers…not to accept anyone’s help…. I was to report to them if any stranger got in touch with me.”

CLW says Deng’s letter never received any response, though the investigators were eventually released on bail in late June (now awaiting trial, they have been ordered not to speak with media, according to CLW). Nor has anyone in the US government publicly commented on Huajian, though some anonymous US officials suggested recently to Reuters that the labor controversy was being used as a geopolitical ploy between Washington and Beijing.

So Huajian remains one of many hidden undersides of the Trump family empire. Though the allegations of labor abuse are endemic and not unique to Trump’s brand, the President’s name is indelibly linked to allegations of massive labor abuse, along with the violent suppression of advocates who are giving Western brands the wrong kind of publicity. CLW believes Ivanka’s corporation has a responsibility to use her public platform to make an example of cleaning up her company’s supply chain.

In light of Trump’s eagerness to rival China’s economic dominance, Qiang suggested another approach to free trade for the president: “Speaking of bringing jobs back to America as Trump says, he might as well bring back these slave labor jobs that are in Ivanka Trump’s factories, if he wants.”

While the ruling party elite of China repress their workers, stifle dissent, and let a Nobel peace prize winner die in prison, most of America remains strangely silent about our partner in crime, I mean trade. Many mainstream Democrats howled in outrage when Trump chatted on the phone with Taiwan's premier. How dare he upset the apple cart! Yet the same people who have no problem 'respecting' China's insistence that we do not recognize Taiwan think it was OK when we meddled in Ukraine's politics and supported a new anti-Russian leader in what was essentially an overthrow, made gestures toward bringing Ukraine into NATO, knowing that was a red-line for Russia, and conducted military exercises near the Russian border. When neoliberals are asked why we should vilify Russia, the answer is "because Putin is a thug!" We have a strange set of double standards in this country. Neither Russia, China, or the US have a functioning democracy. We are the only one that keeps telling ourselves that we do.

(3)(0)

James Cerullosays:

July 12, 2017 at 11:04 am

She's just as corrupt as the buffoon daddy she has.

(5)(0)

David Pattersonsays:

July 12, 2017 at 6:42 am

Let's see. A "communist" country allows its people to be exploited and abused in order to satisfy the insatiable demands of the world's most predatory capitalists.
Marx is rolling in his grave and Nixon is laughing from Hell.

(5)(0)

Charles Jacobysays:

July 11, 2017 at 7:50 pm

"...global feminist figurehead..."? Huh? Spoiled brat would be more accurate, and feminists need to get to disowning this woman along with daddy. How disgraceful does it have to get? Before Americans in particular take it seriously? I'm sure many Chinese do, but with that authoritarian, capitalist regime it's not so hard to understand lack of general protest as life and limb are at risk.

This brand of...what? shoes or some other silly thing?...should be closed down by US authorities for illegal labor practices. Course that will happen when hell freezes over.

Anything goes when it comes to our aristocracy headed for the moment by King Donald. I reached the conclusion fairly recently that the American revolution was never about ousting a king, but rather independence from one in order to empower another more local, albeit with a few limits to the extent of his (or, eventually, her) power. I can only say that I no longer think much of the so-called, "founding fathers," all of whom now strike me as unable to separate themselves from monarchy in principle. even if they did so to a somewhat greater extent in practice.

Far too much power has remained in what I think can reasonably be regarded as an aristocracy from the very beginning. After all, for how long has labor been doing battle with ownership? It continues, obviously, to this day with no end in sight.

For the rest of you right her in the good ole, enjoy your half can of dog food this evening, saving the other half for another Winstonian day tomorrow. And best of luck obtaining the medication you need to control your ongoing physical pain as well. I only wish there were an end in sight, but not yet, not even in this 21st Century.

(4)(0)

Laurel Podraskysays:

July 11, 2017 at 7:33 am

ivanka is her fathers daughter. Didn't fall far from the tree. No respect for life, human or otherwise.

(9)(0)

Carla Skidmoresays:

July 13, 2017 at 8:38 pm

Oh, but Trump will "punish" women who have abortions? Other than fetal life, the Trump clan has no respect for life, they only respect the money that they count each night before they go to bed.

(1)(0)

Betsy Smithsays:

July 10, 2017 at 8:26 pm

For years and years I haven't bought anything made in China. Not Trump brands or Chinese Levis or any of the other items our stores are filled with. If all those who believe in human rights put their money where their mouth is, we might make a difference.

(15)(1)

Dacia Murphysays:

July 10, 2017 at 8:21 pm

Her products are made on the back of slave labor. ?Who knew??
This family is garbage, and they're turning America into a dumpster.

(13)(0)

Walter Pewensays:

July 10, 2017 at 5:15 pm

What is the market for her overpriced, gaudy shit? Who BUYS Trump products? Who ever DID but Trump steaks, vodka, all of it?
Is this junk being purchased by the new rich of Asia or maybe third world countries.
It's not even Chanel knockoffs, it's trash. Like the family.